Past Presenters at the Rhine Research Center

****JavaScript based drop down DHTML menu generated by NavStudio. (OpenCube Inc. - http://www.opencube.com)****

Search This Site

Recent Presenters at the Rhine

Call 309-4600 (10-4pm) or email Office@rhine.org
for further information.
Would you like to give us some feedback on our presentations?
Send your comments here.

The Rhine Research Center is happy to host these and other educational events, but it does not endorse presenters' claims, as not all of these claims have been subjected to rigorous scientific validation.

Dr. Mitchell W. Krucoff is a native of Washington D.C. He graduated Yale University in 1976 Magna Cum Laude with a degree in religious studies and philosophy. He earned his M.D. from George Washington University in 1980, where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. In 1988 Dr. Krucoff joined the cardiology faculty at Duke University Medical Center where he remains to this date. He is currently fully tenured as a Professor of Medicine/Cardiology, member of the Duke Senior Interventional Cardiology Staff and Director of the Cardiovascular Devices Unit at the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) and served as Director of the Cardiovascular Laboratories at the Durham VA Medical Center for 12 years.

In exploring new healing paradigms complementary to modern high tech medical practices Dr. Krucoff has served on the Board of Directors of the Sri Satya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences in Puttaparthi, India since 1990. He is past Editor In Chief of Larry Dossey’s Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, is currently Senior Editor of the peer review Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, and recently published the book Integrative Cardiology from McGraw Hill.

Christine Simmonds-Moore, PhD has a PhD on personality and anomalous experiences and has been actively studying anomalous, paranormal and transpersonal experiences for over 10 years. Previous research projects include healing, ganzfeld research, virtual reality and ESP, gender role and paranormal experiences and recently, cognition and attention and paranormal experiences and the overlaps between paranormal experiences and clinical psychology. She has recently become interested in evolution and psychic experiences. Christine has also regularly taught courses on paranormal experiences, both for members of the public (at the Rhine Research Center) and at undergraduate level (at Liverpool Hope University). Christine is currently on grant funded sabbatical from her teaching post at Liverpool Hope University in the UK, and is a visiting Researcher at the Rhine Research Center and the Division of Perceptual Studies at UVA in Charlottesville. During this upcoming year, she will be working on a study which will explore individual differences and the detection of weak and paranormal signals as well as working on two books - one on psychic personality and the other on health, mental health and exceptional human experiences (the outcome of a recent conference that Christine organized in the UK). Christine is a member of the PA, where she sits on one of the grant committees, the SPR, and also a member of the British Psychological Society, highlighting her passion for mainstream psychology and the psychology of anomalous experiences.

Following a corporate career, Judy B. Gardiner began exploring symbolism in her dreams. This evolved to a powerful dream series which she’s been researching and writing about for 15 years, illumining correspondences between personal dream events, psi events and objective developments in science and nature. Her self-study transformed to a “wake up call” pointing to our connection with cosmos and spirit.

Judy now lectures and conducts workshops on cosmic dreaming, the topic of her forthcoming novel, “Lavender: An Entwined Adventure in Science and Spirit.” Her wish is that her work will inspire others to tap into the all-embracing knowledge embedded in our dreams.

Jeffrey Mishlove is currently director of the Intuition Network, an organization dedicated to helping create a world in which all people are encouraged to cultivate their inner, intuitive resources. He also serves as program dean of the University of Philosophical Research. Jeffrey was host of the television interview series "Thinking Allowed." In this capacity, he has interviewed hundreds of leading thinkers in the areas of philosophy, psychology, health, science and spirituality. Dr. Mishlove is the author of an encyclopedic volume of consciousness studies, The Roots of Consciousness. He holds the only doctoral diploma in "Parapsychology" to be awarded by an accredited American University (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). A revision of his doctoral dissertation, Psi Development Systems, was released in 1988 as a Ballantine paperback. This book evaluates methods purported to train psychic abilities. His newest book, The PK Man, presents a case study of unusual psychokinetic abilities.

Richenel “Muz” Ansano, a native of Curaçao, in the Dutch Caribbean moved to Durham in the year 2000. His cross-cultural life experience was enhanced by training in cultural anthropology, his cultural policy and community work and his interest in religion, spirituality, and healing. He is past director of the Cultural Ministry in Curacao, past associate director of the John Hope Franklin Institute at Duke University and past executive director of the Global Medicine Education Foundation. Culture and healing have been two of his main passions since the 1970's.

Muz has honed his intuitive practice through years of interacting with cultures and stories, through working with Western Medicine practitioners in Curaçao and the US to bring alternative perspectives to their work and through his own healing. In 2004 he experienced healing of his own 35 years of epilepsy though a series of dreams and a healing story circle that led to a deep understanding of his illness and an immediate healing. He brings all the many years of accumulated knowledge and experience with him each time someone brings their illness to him for healing. Alimá Transformations

Carlos S. Alvarado, Ph.D. is a well-known scholar of parapsychological literature with numerous publications in English and Spanish in a variety of parapsychological and other journals. His published work has focused on historical studies of parapsychology and on the psychological variables related to psychic experiences. He has been a long-time consultant, employee and currently a volunteer with the Parapsychology Foundation where he remains the Director of International and Domestic Programs and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Parapsychology. He has been active with the Parapsychology Association including two terms as President, and he was a Visiting Scholar at the Rhine Research Center as well as a Summer Study Program instructor for many years in the past.

Currently, Dr. Alvarado holds an adjunct appointment at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology as well as a faculty appointment at the University of Virginia as Assistant Professor of Research in Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the Division of Perceptual Studies in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Nancy L. Zingrone, Ph.D. has been active in parapsychological research for more than three decades. She was a founding member and later Executive Director of the Midwest Psi Research Institute (Chicago), then from 1982 to 1993 she was a Research Fellow at the Rhine Research Center, and later a Visiting Scholar and instructor in the Summer Study Program for many years. Her work has been published in a wide range of parapsychological and other journals. She has long been an active member of the Parapsychological Association, editing the PA newsletter and Proceedings, and serving two terms as President. She has been connected with the Parapsychology Foundation for years as an employee, a consultant and now as a volunteer, and remains Director of Publications and Executive Editor of the International Journal of Parapsychology.

Currently, Dr. Zingrone is an Assistant Professor of Research in Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia, in the Division of Perceptual Studies in Charlottesville, Virginia where she conducts research with Alvarado.

Professor Bem has published on several diverse topics in psychology, including group decision making, self-perception, personality theory, sexual orientation, and psi (ESP). He is coauthor of an introductory textbook in psychology and the author of Beliefs, Attitudes, and Human Affairs (1970).

Professor Bem has pursued research in parapsychology since the early 1990's, publishing a major article on telepathy experiments with Charles Honorton in the Psychological Bulletin, a mainstream psychology journal. Since then, his research has focused on precognition and "retroactive influence," the influence of future events on an individual's thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

Stuart Hameroff M.D. is Professor of Anesthesiology and Psychology, and Director of the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. A full-time clinical anesthesiologist, he organizes the well-known interdisciplinary conferences Toward a Science of Consciousness, and has published numerous books and papers on how the brain produces consciousness. In the mid 90s Hameroff co-developed with Sir Roger Penrose the controversial Orch OR theory of consciousness based on quantum computing in microtubules inside brain neurons. His research website is Q uantum Consciousness.

Jerry Solfvin, PhD, is associate professor with the Center for Indic Studies at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in North Dartmouth, MA. His current research interests include Indian psychology, ways of knowing, and East-West approaches to science. He has long been interested in animal behavior studies, especially the human-dog relationship and hopes to someday complete a book on the topic.

Michael Jawer is an independent researcher who has been examining mind-body differences among individuals for the past 10 years. His original survey investigation, published by the Society for Psychical Research in the UK, uncovered linkages between environmental sensitivities, a variety of personality factors, and apparitional experience.

Jawer’s interest in emotion and extraordinary sensitivities was kindled by his investigation of indoor air quality/sick building issues in the 1990s. His book, The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion (written with Marc Micozzi, MD, PhD and with a Foreword by Larry Dossey, MD) is published by Park Street Press. The book’s website is www.emotiongateway.com.
Listen to Michael Jawer's radio interview on The State of Things with Frank Stasio

Lawrence LeShan, Ph.D. is a research and clinical psychologist who has worked with cancer patients for over forty years. His pioneering research in psychological factors in cancer has led him to be called “The father of mind-body medicine”.

Dr. LeShan has directed several research projects, and received professional awards: the Normal Cousins Award for Development of Human Relations in Psychology and Medicine, the Center for Integrative Cancer Therapies Award for Advancing Patient Participation in Their Own Treatment, the Pathfinder Award from the Association of Humanistic Psychology, and the Gardener Murphy Award. He served for five years as a U.S. army psychologist.

Michael Potts is Professor of Philosophy at Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from The University of Georgia in 1992. He has been interested in near-death experiences since he found a copy of Raymond Moody's Life after Life at a Kroger store when he was in ninth grade. He has written two articles in scholarly journals on near-death experiences, and hopes to do more research and writing in this area in the future.

Larry Dossey, M.D., is a respected leader in bringing scientific understanding to spirituality and an internationally influential advocate of the role of spirituality in healthcare and wellness. During his distinguished career as a practitioner of integrative medicine, he helped establish the Dallas Diagnostic Association and served as Chief of Staff of Medical City Dallas Hospital. The author of eleven books, including the New York Times bestseller Healing Words, he is executive editor of Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing. Dr. Dossey has lectured all over world and at major medical schools and hospitals in the United States—Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, and the Mayo Clinic, among others. A native Texan, he lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Mark Leary, Ph.D., is a social and personality psychologist who has held faculty positions at Denison University, the University of Texas, Wake Forest University, and Duke University. He is the author of 11 books and nearly 200 scientific articles and chapters on topics related to social behavior and emotions. He also has interests in philosophy of science, research design, and quantitative analysis and is involved in efforts to promote critical and scientific thinking among the public.

Dr. John Palmer, Ph.D., was on the staff of the Rhine Research Center (formerly Foundation of Research on the Nature of Man) from 1984 to 2004, serving as both the Director of Education and Director of Research. He has been Editor of the Journal of Parapsychology since 1994 and was President of the Parapsychological Association in 1979 and 1992. His research has focused primarily on psychological factors associated with ESP performance in the laboratory. He has published numerous research articles and is co-author of the book Foundations of Parapsychology.

Graham Watkins attended the University of Kentucky and did graduate studies at Duke University, majoring in Zoology. In the early 1970s, he was a research associate at the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man at the time that J. B. Rhine was the director. He is best known for the mouse-ether studies, which demonstrated the ability of "talented" subjects to cause mice to recover from ether anesthesia faster than they normally would. He has also worked in the fields of toxicology and electronics and is a published writer of both fiction and non-fiction.

George Matthis is president of the National Society for Paranormal Investigation and Research (NSPIR), a non-profit organization dedicated to paranormal investigation, research, and education. As part of its mission to educate the public about the paranormal and to promote ethical, science-based investigations, NSPIR sponsors the Carolina Hauntings, Apparitions, and Poltergeists Society (CHAPS) to educate the public regarding paranormal investigations. George is also president of the Paranormal Resource Alliance, which is dedicated to promoting adherence to a code of ethics and standards among paranormal investigators and providing resources for paranormal groups.

Jim Hall is a science teacher and director of Haunted North Carolina, which has investigated hundreds of cases of paranormal activity since it was founded (as Seven Paranormal Research) in 1992. Jim has over 20 years of experience in paranormal investigations, which he approaches with a critical mindset, insisting that rational explanations be thoroughly considered before turning to paranormal ones. Jim is vice-president of the Paranormal Research Alliance and is regularly sought by the media for his expertise regarding the paranormal.

Beth Wechsler, LICSW

Beth has been published in Yankee Magazine ("Portrait of a Psychic") and "A Word About Patients' Psychic Experiences: Listen" appeared in the March 2009 edition of American Nurse Today. A graduate of Smith College School for Social Work, Beth has just been trained in Induced After Death Communication, developed by Dr. Allan Botkin for the treatment of trauma and grief in veterans.

"Soul Mates" Julie Beischel and Mark Boccuzzi co-founded The Windbridge Institute for Applied Research in Human Potential where they perform rigorous, cutting-edge laboratory research on the survival of consciousness, or life after death. Julie received her PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Arizona where she went on to serve as the William James Post-doctoral Fellow in Mediumship and Survival Research and as Co-Director with Dr. Gary Schwartz of the VERITAS Research Program until that program closed in 2007. Julie is the Director of Research at Windbridge and her primary research focus is studying mediums, the information they report, and their experiences during communication with the deceased.

Originally from the software industry, Mark spent the better part of a decade investigating spontaneous cases of apparitions and related haunting phenomena in the San Francisco Bay Area. His research interests include investigating technologies, including EVP/ITC, that may be useful in enhancing interaction and communication with deceased individuals as well as addressing reports of haunting phenomena using both field and laboratory methods. Mark has developed the thorough, multi-step C.O.R.E. method of investigating allegedly haunted locations which integrates historically successful methods with a new focus on the experiencers. In addition to his research role, Mark is also Director of Operations at Windbridge. Julie and Mark met during the 2005 Summer Study Program in Parapsychology presented by the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) and the Rhine Research Center and were married in 2008. More information about Windbridge investigators, mediums, events, publications, and opportunities can be found at: www.windbridge.org

Jack Stucki, RMT, BCIAC, began his professional career in 1967 as a music therapist. He was influenced most by the people he served, including severely and profoundly retarded children, and the comatose. His work with the comatose was featured on educational television and headlined in the Contemporary Magazine of the Denver Post. In the latter sixties he taught Group Dynamics in Counseling on the graduate level at Western State College, Gunnison, CO. In the 1970’s he established one of the earlier pain clinics in the nation. His work has also been featured on the television talk show “The Changing Paradigm”. In 1991, he was a member of the fact-finding team studying the effects of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, and introduced professionals, in the Ukraine, to biofeedback. For the past seven years he has been in private practice and has been involved in the Merkaba Research and Healing Center, which he co-founded. He is the instructor for a course in Integrative Medicine for the University of Colorado Medical School. He served three terms as President of the Colorado Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. He was a recipient of the Johann Stoyva Award for outstanding contribution to biofeedback. His main interest lies in using high technology to explore subtle energies, culminating in the current use of and research with the Bio-Luminator.

Athena A. Drewes, Psy.D., RPT-S, is a licensed child psychologist, parapsychologist and volunteer consultant to the Rhine Research Center and the Parapsychology Foundation on children’s psychic experiences. She is also on the Advisory Board of the Rhine Center. Dr. Drewes has conducted research, written articles and reviews and presented on children’s ESP experiences. She responds to parent and child inquiries regarding children and ESP that come in to the Rhine Research Center and through A&E. She has been featured on the A&E cable shows “Psychic Children” and “Paranormal State”. She has also had her own psychic experiences as a child through adulthood. Her involvement in parapsychology began as a research assistant at the Dream Lab (Parapsychology and Psychophysics Research Laboratory) at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY assisting with dream telepathy experiments with Dr. Stanley Krippner and Charles Honorton.

Dr. Drewes is currently the Director of Clinical Training at a large non-profit multi-service child and family mental health agency in the Hudson Valley, north of New York City. Dr. Drewes is the senior author, with Dr. Sally A. Drucker, of the reference work, Parapsychological Research with Children: An Annotated Bibliography. She is also the co-editor and chapter author of five books on play therapy. For more information see Is My Child Psychic?

Donna Gulick received her M.A. and practiced as a professional Speech Pathologist until one day she experienced a life-altering occurrence and discovered the healing power within her. As a result of this experience, for more than 25 years she has been serving as a spiritual director and teacher, intuitive counselor, interfaith minister, healer, author, and inspirational speaker. To learn more about Ms. Gulick, visit www.DonnaSpringGulick.com

Stacy Horn is a writer. Her new book is, Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory (Ecco, 2009). The book before that was The Restless Sleep: Inside New York City’s Cold Case Squad, (Viking.)
Read more about Stacy Horn's presentation

She is also an occasional contributor to the NPR show, All Things Considered. Visit her website and blogs.
Stacey Horn was recently interviewed on NPR's The State of Things.

Click the start button to listen to the interview:

Dr. Sy Mauskopf has been a Professor of History at Duke University since 1964. His specialty is the history of science. He has a B.A. in history from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in the history of science from Princeton University. He has written the following books: Crystals and Compounds (1976); The Reception of Unconventional Science (ed., 1979); The Elusive Science (with Michael McVaugh, 1980); Chemical Sciences in the Modern World (ed., 1993). He was awarded the Edelstein International Fellowship in the History of Chemical Sciences and Technology from the University of Pennsylvania and Hebrew University, Jerusalem in 1988-1989, and The Dexter Award for Outstanding Contributions to the History of Chemistry from the American Chemical Society in 1998. He was named a Price Fellow by the Chemical Heritage Foundation in 2000 and was the recipient of NSF fellowships and a Hagley Fellowship in 1992. Dr. Mauskopf was the recipient of the Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award (Duk

Michele Bustamante, Founder of Tiyoweh Communications Michele has been practicing professionally as an animal communicator and consultant for 8 years. Numerous childhood and adult telepathic experiences, and deep connections with animals lead her to study with animal communication pioneer Penelope Smith. Michele is also a Reiki Master and incorporates Reiki, Shamanic techniques, and flower essences in her practice to support healing. One of the aspects Michele enjoys most about her work is assisting humans in "re-membering" their connection to all beings and the Earth. Michele also holds bachelor's degrees in Zoology and Computer and Information Systems and has worked as a veterinary technician. Michele will lead the audience through brief exercises to demonstrate the potential for improved Animal Communication within all of us.

Sally Rhine Feather Ph.D., Executive Director of The Rhine Research Center Sally’s first job at the Duke Parapsychology Lab of the early 1950’s was assisting her father, JB Rhine, in collecting accounts of animal behavior that suggested psi. Reports of pets who knew when their owner was coming home, homed over long distances, or trailed owners into entirely new locations were astounding to her then as they are now, both for the devotion they show and for the mechanism of how this can happen. Sally will briefly review anpsi research of her own and others both here and at other labs. She will give a plea for a renewed interest in collecting more such reports that can help us learn more about the amazing human-pet connection and its meaning on all different levels. www.rhine.org

Bob Van de Castle Ph.D. is Professor Emeritus at UVA and a Former Director of the Sleep and Dream Lab at UVA Medical Center. He has worked over 40 years in such areas as the content and interpretation of dreams. He is a Past President of the Association for the Study of Dreams and also of the Parapsychology Association. The author of many publications, his most recent book is Our Dreaming Mind. His website: Our Dreaming Mind

"I really want to praise Bob for facilitating such a life changing experience for us. We were both so taken by the interconnectedness of the group and Bob's wealth of knowledge on so many fascinating topics." -- S. Brown, Charlotte, NC

Dick Lowrie As part of a rare U.S. government grant to investigate psi in animals, Dick Lowrie accompanied JBR to visit various German researchers who were exploring this unusual topic in the early 1950's. He then helped JBR with later tests with animals under this grant from the US Army Corps of Engineers. Now retired, the speaker will share his memories of this collaborative association, much of which has never been published.

Read Dick Lowrie's interesting paper on Entanglement

Mary Jo Bulbrook, EdD, RN, CEMP/S/I, CHTP, HTI Dr. Bulbrook is a spiritual / medical intuitive and psychotherapist who has a practice at the Triangle Holistic Center in Durham, NC for spiritual and intuitive development, health challenges, psychotherapy, and energy medicine. Her educational program Transform Your Life through Energy Medicine (TYLEM) includes higher sense perception training. TYLEM is offered throughout the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Chile and South Africa. Mary Jo provides humanitarian service through Energy Medicine Partnerships International and is the humanitarian chairperson for the Association of Comprehensive Energy Psychology. Research in energy medicine and consciousness training is an integral part of the profession and contributions of energy medicine worldwide. Her insights and research spans thirty-five years in the field of multi-dimensionality and health care.

Ellen Kaye Gehrke, PhD has senior level management experience in public and private sectors and universities and international organizations in USA and European countries teaching, research, training, consulting, marketing, organizational development, strategic planning, cross-cultural education, business improvement, sustainability planning, project management, human resource development and education administration.

In addition she owns and manages Rolling Horse Ranch where she conducts research looking at consciousness connections between horses and humans. She also offers leaderships training through relationships with horses. Her research has been presented at the International Society for the Study of Energy and Energy Medicine. Ellen has multi-dimensional communication with horses and has gained insight unique to her profession. She also does 1:1 executive coaching with horses as partners as well as conducting research.

Kathe Martin is a professional psychic medium with over 20 year’s experience. She is clairvoyant, clairaudient, and clairsentient. She reads the Tarot, practices psychometry, channels, and is a Medical Intuitive. She is also a certified Acupressurist trained in Traditional Chinese Medicine at the Acupressure Institute in Berkeley, California. Kathe is a candidate for the study of psychic mediums at the Windbridge Institute for Applied Research in Human Potential. She has been written about in Yes! Weekly and has been featured as a special guest on the Wicker Show on 98.7 FM. Her website is www.kathemartin.com

Josiane d'Hoop is an intuitive counselor, healer, certified hypnotherapist, and teacher of metaphysics who also teaches meditation, intuition development, alternative healing methods, and self-empowerment. Learn more about Josiane d’Hoop at : www.WalkThruTheDoor.com. She is also the founder of a non-profit organization, Quantum Institute International (QII), with the purpose to develop human potential by raising human consciousness. You can visit its educational website at: www.qiionline.org

Dr. Laura Dunham had careers in higher education, financial planning and ministry before shifting to spiritual energy healing for people, places, and the planet. Her new book, "Spiritual Wisdom for a Planet in Peril: Preparing for 2012 and Beyond," is a timely guide for a world in transition and will be available at this program. . Learn more about Dr. Dunham at www.healingandwisdom.com.